This new corporate headquarters for a local advertising agency is a reaction against the standard issue office environment. People require interaction in today’s workplace as they go to work to collaborate, to brainstorm, to do research, to do a range of activities they don’t necessarily think of as “work” in the traditional sense of the word. Much of what we observe in creative environments is a more informal interaction in settings not typical or traditional, such as chance meetings in corridors or conversations around the coffee pot.

Our design is structured to reinforce that culture of openness. To accomplish this, we have radically altered the internal configuration of a 1970’s era data center while leaving the exterior essentially unchanged.

To accomplish this goal, we radically altered the internal configuration of a 1970’s era data center while leaving the exterior essentially unchanged. The existing building had a very large floor plate along with narrow windows with limited views to the outside. To counteract this condition, our proposal introduces an outdoor court that penetrates to the second floor of the building – a garden “room” that introduces a captured landscape in the middle of the office environment.

Renderings (Courtesy of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple)

Elsewhere in the design, additional structure is removed to connect the various floors into one communicating whole – reinforcing the culture and identity of the company as a singular creative community. Primary among these interventions is a bleacher / stair adjacent to the company café. Here, the entire office staff can congregate for company-wide announcements or group presentations, watch movies, sporting events (or even advertisements) on the digital “billboard” or simply hang out in a new Lamar “town square”.